Panasonic hopes to spread 'Jungle' fever

Seventeen years after its 3DO flopped, Panasonic is taking another crack at the gaming market, with the unveiling of the Jungle handheld gaming console, according to PCMag.com.

The Jungle is a system geared toward massive multi-player online gamers. Although there are few concrete details about the Jungle available, a Web site dedicated to the product is now live.

“All we can say for now is that this mean little machine features a kick-ass display, touch pad, keyboard, and other gaming controls that we'll be saying more about soon," the Web site reads.

Social networking Web site Facebook has activated its Places technology in Germany, risking new criticism from authorities who have repeatedly warned Germans they are disclosing too much private information on the Internet, reports Times Live.

Facebook Places enables users to disclose their precise physical location on a map, if they wish to do so. The data is uploaded to Facebook automatically by the user's smartphone.

Places, which launched in the US in August and is gradually rolling out in other nations, is being promoted as a means for Facebook users to meet their friends when they happen to be on the same city block, at the movies or in a restaurant.

The head of Motorola's mobile phone business said he is open to developing devices that run Microsoft's new mobile operating system, despite the patent-infringement lawsuits the software giant recently filed against his company, says The Wall Street Journal.

The comments by Motorola co-chief executive Sanjay Jha were his company's first detailed remarks on the lawsuits filed by Microsoft, at the International Trade Commission and federal court, in Seattle.

The suits were viewed as an attempt to slow the explosive growth of Google's competing mobile operating system, Android, which Motorola uses exclusively on its smartphones.

Samsung Electronics has sold more than five million Galaxy S smartphone handsets since the June unveiling, putting the smartphone laggard on track to challenge bigger rivals such as Apple, says Reuters.

A weak line-up of smartphones has been one of the weakest points for Samsung, the world's number two handset maker, as consumers increasingly move into the high-end segment that Apple jump-started with the iPhone, in 2007.

Galaxy S, Samsung's answer to the iPhone, is powered by Google's Android operating system and sold through about 100 carriers worldwide, including four major US telecommunications operators.